In many location based services applications, it is important to know whether a particular geographic point is inside a particular geographic region. For example, for 9-1-1 emergency services, it is important to assign a context for en event triggered from a mobile device, and to notify the authorities in the appropriate jurisdiction. Depending on which county the mobile device user is in, a different emergency response team may be assigned. This is commonly referred to as “point in poly operations.” There are many other similar use cases where dynamically generated points get compared in real time against static (or slowly changing) polygons for geometric interaction. Another common application is geofencing, in which it is determined when a mobile device user enters into a defined region, and using that information to send them targeted messages, or for tracking.
Conventionally, accurate point in poly operations are very processor intensive. Geographic boundaries are often irregular, and accurate results can require a full geometric analysis. Processing power and processing speed can be critical when large numbers of points are being processed, and when timely decisions need to be made based on the output.